Skip to content

Chris Shelton’s Critical Q&A #384

This week, it’s answers about loaded language in Scientology, how group processing reinforces group controls, a breakdown on body thetans and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Did Hubbard create an additional language for Scientology as just another form of coercive control? In other words, would you say that all of those words that only make sense in Scientology are just another way to control those within its grasp? For example, there’s a famous interview in Australia, where Tom Cruise is talking to a journalist and tells the journalist to “Put your manners in now.” No one outside of Scientology speaks like that. Then there’s all the acronyms. What do you think?

(2) I was listening to a group auditing session by LRH and have a question about trance induction and control on a broader level. At the beginning of the session, people were relaxed and giggling at different commands. “Talk to the front wall. Okay, now talk to the back wall. Okay, now talk to the right wall. Okay…” and it went on and on with different commands, over and over. 

What I noticed from the group was that the more they complied with the commands, the giggling stopped quickly and everyone spoke in unison. It was disturbing (like something out of the book 1984). What happens for people in coercive situations with this type of trance induction and control? Not just with Scientology but with other group situations?

(3) I’ve always wondered how Scientologists think about body thetans. We all *are* thetans and we *have* bodies. So far so good. We’re also all infested by body thetans, which are thetans that are somehow not in a very good state. Thetans have lived for a very long time so we have basically done everything: created civilizations, destroyed them, yadda yadda. So, shouldn’t we also assume that at some point along our track we had been in this degraded state of being a body thetan? Shouldn’t I come up with memories that a gazillion lifetimes ago, I had been a body thetan infesting the little toe of Leonardo Da Vinci or something?!  Or, let’s say I give birth. Couldn’t it be that the thetan running my little baby is the body thetan I expelled last year from my liver? Would a Scientologist think about it that way?

(4) Since you always have some movie wallpapers on your screens and your LEGO models standing around I was wondering if you ever did a video on that in terms of how you view super heroes as a way of cultism and glorification of even bad character traits, indoctrination of the masses as in “Superman knows what’s good for you!” and similar? I’m not much a fan of most of the Marvel stuff since it’s always so over the top, but I can see some value for this discussion in some of the “Batman” movies for instance or “The Boyz”‘ satirical/ cynical take on the subject. And completely unrelated: Is your LEGO obsession just tied to building stuff from the films or do you consider yourself a real AFOL (adult fan of LEGO)?

(5) While you were in the Sea Org, were there ever times when subordinates would talk negatively about superior officers? Were you in any sort of cliques where you felt comfortable criticizing things without fear of having a knowledge report written up on you? Can you think of anyone that you were in with that would regularly scrutinize the way things were going that you could envision potentially ‘blowing’ in the future? Thanks! 

(6) Why do you think Tom Cruise hasn’t gotten married since he and Katie Holmes got divorced in 2012? It’s not like he has a shortage of women that would be interested.

(7) Why are seniors in the Sea Org called “sir” regardless of their gender?  Hubbard certainly wouldn’t have learned that during his time in the Navy, nor would a female officer today be called “sir.”  In fact, to do so deliberately would almost certainly result in a reprimand or more severe disciplinary action for blatant insubordination or disrespect. While we’re on the subject, what would happen in the Sea Org if one purposefully dropped or omitted “sir”?

(8) It took me a couple of years after getting out of the cult I was in to stop believing in re-incarnation, long after dropping other beliefs. Did you continue to believe in that after leaving Scientology, since they also believe in it (albeit in a different way)?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.